VIA Releases VIA VE-900 Mini-ITX Mainboard for Digital Home Media Enthusiasts

[btarunr]

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA VE-900 Mini-ITX Mainboard, immediately available worldwide at incredibly competitive pricing. The VIA VE-900 Mini-ITX provides the ideal platform for DIY enthusiasts to custom build stylish home desktop and media center PCs.

Featuring a high-performance 1.4GHz VIA Nano X2 dual core processor and the VIA VX900 unified all-in-one media system processor, the VIA VE-900 Mini-ITX Mainboard delivers a highly optimized platform that boasts stunning HD video performance of the most demanding video formats at resolutions of up to 1080p. The VIA VE-900 Mini-ITX also supports high fidelity surround sound through the VIA VT1708S HD audio codec which delivers amazing stereo 24-bit resolution and up to 192kHz sample rates and adds HDMI support in a compact, power-efficient package.



"November 6th marked the 10 year anniversary of the Mini-ITX form factor which spurred a revolution in the modding community," said Richard Brown, Vice President of Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. "The VIA VE-900 delivers an affordable, high performance Mini-ITX mainboard that will spur a new wave of inspiration and innovation in the next generation of enthusiasts."

VIA VE-900 Mini-ITX desktop board
The VIA VE-900 Mini-ITX Mainboard, measuring 17cm, x 17cm, pairs a 1.4 GHz VIA Nano X2 CPU with the VIA VX900 MSP. In addition to enabling support for up to 8GB of DDR3 system memory, the VIA VX900 MSP features the latest ChromotionHD 2.0 video engine, boasting comprehensive hardware acceleration for the latest VC1, H.264, MPEG-2 and WMV9 HD formats at screen resolutions of up to 1080p without incurring a heavy CPU load. Display connectivity support includes onboard HDMI and VGA.

Rear panel I/O includes a Gigabit LAN port, HDMI port, VGA port, four USB 2.0 ports, one PS/2 K/B and M/S port, one serial port and three audio jacks for line-out/in/Mic-in. An onboard PCI slot is accompanied with 2 SATA pin headers, four USB 2.0 ports and LPT support.

Pricing and availability
The VIA VE-900 Mini-ITX Mainboard is currently available, for pricing and ordering information please contact your local VIA representative or us at mkt@via.com.tw.

For more information about the VIA VE-900 Mini-ITX Mainboard please visit this page.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[shiny_red_cobra]

What's with the random PCI slot? It sticks out like a sore thumb.

 

[TheLostSwede]

"for Digital Home Media Enthusiasts" allow me to snicker...
This board is about as good for an HTC as not all. If it didn't have that HDMI port, it'd be entirely useless.
On top of that it'll most like cost the better part of €150, so no-one's going to buy it anyhow.
Way too little, way way too late VIA...

 

[Mindweaver]

Who uses "PS/2 K/B" on a HTPC?...Oh wait someone that would use that PCI slot on an HTPC... No Floppy connection! This board is useless..lol Let me plug my old mouse into that Serial port...lol

 

[Static~Charge]

And don't forget the header for the parallel printer (LPT) port! Yes sir, that's an essential feature on my HTPC list.

 

[Drone]

Who uses "PS/2 K/B" on a HTPC?

is there any <fundamental> difference between ps/2 and usb keyboard?

 

[TheLostSwede]

And don't forget the header for the parallel printer (LPT) port! Yes sir, that's an essential feature on my HTPC list.

Actually, a lot of VFD's still use them, so that's actually a lot more useful than some of the other additions on this board...

That said, I'd get an AMD E-350 or E-450 board over this any day

 

[dogchainx]

Hey VIA...2000 called, they want their motherboard back.

 

[dogchainx]

is there any <fundamental> difference between ps/2 and usb keyboard?

Question is, is there any fundamental difference between a wired ps/2 keyboard and a **wireless** USB keyboard?

 

[Cuzza]

PCI Slot? WTF?
This board looks like it should be 5 years old. Standard VIA product release strategy come to think of it.

Nothing on this board makes sense. I was going to say if it's cheap enough, ideal to build a simple nettop. But you wouldn't, because it doesn't have a DVI option. And no wireless.

They're pushing it as a media board, but your only decent audio option is HDMI.

Jebus. I try hard to be a VIA fanboy. I really do. And this is what I get?

lol. I read that last sentence, I realise I said the same thing to AMD when Bulldozer came out. Maybe I should just give up and go make love to Intel.

 

[RejZoR]

This board makes no sense at all. PS2 and PCI IO ? Someone was on some heavy marijuana when he was designing this thing. It's year 2011. I tossed PS2 devices years ago and i'm still ranting over the 1 damn PCI slot i still have on my Rampage II Gene board that's taking my space that i could use to stick PCIe soundcard into at the very case bottom.

I'd love to see VIA get back as a serious competitor, but with such crappy products, good luck with that pals...

 

[Frick]

is there any <fundamental> difference between ps/2 and usb keyboard?

You can't start the computer with USB keyboards.

Anyway, meh. I want them to push the smaller ITX form factors more. It's still nice to see them dual cores though, they're not that bad.

 

[TheLostSwede]

You can't start the computer with USB keyboards.

Anyway, meh. I want them to push the smaller ITX form factors more. It's still nice to see them dual cores though, they're not that bad.

Uhm, you might want to buy a new motherboard, as every board I've had for the past five years at least have been bootable without a PS/2 keyboard.

 

[Frick]

Uhm, you might want to buy a new motherboard, as every board I've had for the past five years at least have been bootable without a PS/2 keyboard.

Yeah but I meant that with older boards you could set a keyboard shortcut to start the computer with, or a password. You can't do that with USB keyboards.

 

[Suhidu]

"November 6th marked the 10 year anniversary of the Mini-ITX form factor ...

And look how far they've come.

 

[Mindweaver]

is there any <fundamental> difference between ps/2 and usb keyboard?

Yes... I can unplug my usb and plug it back in and it will work... You'll have to reboot to get that ps/2 to get it to work... when you unplug it from the couch... :shadedshu lol Also, considering this board was built for an htpc... good luck getting a new ps/2 wireless keyboard and mouse.. I know they made wireless ps/2 keyboards and mice, but the battery life sucks compared to a newer USB keyboard and mouse. Now if this was made for a company that needed a cheap pc...then.. errr wait this is VIA.... they don't sale any of there high end stuff cheap.. Have you priced a pico board? Don't get me wrong I like VIA.. But i would never buy a VIA setup for my HTPC over a newer AMD or Intel atom. So is there any <fundamental> difference between you knowing what a HTPC is used for and me knowing? Hell yea /TheEnd...

 

[Thefumigator]

Isn't asrock variation better?

Look at it:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=PV530-ITX

or

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=PV530

 

[micropage7]

its been a while..
VIA is old player in mini itx, but sadly they aint change much when the other fill their mini itx board with latest features, VIA still run on this features.

 

[craigo]

I sometimes put expansion cards into pci slots... if i bought one of these boards for media i would probably put a tuner card in that ridiculous pci slot

I tried to use wifi on my mediacentre and it wasnt up to the task of streaming media so i dont find wifi a viable option for a htpc (mediacentre extender tv streaming scenario)

The legacy ports seem to indicate that this board is more suited to office/industrial applications... like most via products

that said if they need to move some surplus stock why not say:

"Hey it could make a okay media box"

to a bunch of enthusiasts on a tech forum..

 

[St.Alia-Of-The-Knife]

What? VIA still exist after all these years?!

 

[micropage7]

yeah they still there. but covered in the dust so just few that still aware of them

 

[craigo]

yeah...the via boxes are the ones with the legacy ports.....
the ones with the ability to configure cisco gear without having to muck around.